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Traditionally we have seen the statements by Jesus about new patches on old cloth, and putting new wine in old wineskins, as illustrating the necessity of the new birth.

Yes, if you try to put the new wine in the old man, he can’t hold it. And if you just try to patch yourself up with new ideas, it won’t work. But I think there is more to this.

In the parables, Jesus tended to be referencing the present day Jewish kingdom, and how it was going away. Of course, the people didnt understand that. It was unthinkable that Messiah would come and not take the Jewish kingdom back from the Romans. That was their hope.

Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God to earth, not save the Jewish one. Jesus came to bring the new covenant, not prop up the old one. Jesus came to fulfill the law, thereby doing away with it, but not to enable people to keep the law.

I submit that the old wine skin is the old covenant and the old fabric is the law. The new wine can’t be kept under the old covenant. And grace cannot be sewn onto the law. Or visa versa. It’s not important which is which.

If you are a believer and call yourself a Christian, but still try to live by the old covenant and the law, or patch the law into the freedom of grace, you are living in the rubble of the old system, and are not really living as a new creation.

When you see God as a judgmental god, you have missed the final revelation of Him in Jesus. He is good. All the time.

When you try to patch a wrathful, vengeful, demanding god onto that revelation and image that Jesus showed us, you are not living in the kingdom of God.

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2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. The Greek word translated “creature” is ktisis.

Ktisis – the act of founding, establishing, building etc

the act of creating, creation

creation i.e. thing created

of individual things, beings, a creature, a creation 1b

anything created 1b

after a rabbinical usage (by which a man converted from idolatry to Judaism was called) 1b

the sum or aggregate of things created

institution, ordinance

(J.P. Green’s Literal Translation) 2 Cor. 5:17 So that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!

The sense of the Greek work is not a living “creature” but something new that is made, a new thing, as a new building; or someone converted from idolatry. And most certainly, the Jewish believers were converted from law-keeping. More strikingly, the Gentiles were converted from idolatry.

Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision has any strength nor uncircumcision, but a new creation/ktisis. (Green’s)

Now, what is the new thing that God did? Was it not to make one man of two, meaning Jew and Gentile are now heirs together of the kingdom? Could this new creation mean we are a new building? We are its lively stones.

When we believe, we become a part of something bigger than ourselves. This is the biblical viewpoint.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He is in us, we are in Him, He is in God, and God is abiding with us, in a temple made without hands. Jesus established something new. That fits the sense of the Greek word. It also fits the way the scripture views us.

Ephesians 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Understanding the new creature/creation as a larger entity, yet composed of individuals, we can put that aside and look at what regeneration means. I’m not speaking of “the regeneration” which refers to living in the resurrection. That is a different word entirely.

The word translated “born again” is what I’m looking at here. Fathered or begotten from above, anew. What is it that is begotten? Is it not the person? There is no mention of one’s spirit being reborn, or that the soul must be saved in this life, and body will be reborn or saved in the resurrection, as some are teaching.

Salvation happens once, like sanctification happens once. Not has, is, and will be happening. Passages of scripture that seem to say otherwise must be read in context.

The scripture also says man believes with his heart, and talks about being pure in heart, and loving God with all the heart, and so on. So, we are more than three parts, but at least four. Come on. This whole dividing up man into parts is nuts. And the whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts!

This does not mean we are not made new by the spirit of God. What it means is we need to drop the outside influences on what God has said about us. Check it out.

The popular term, “spirit man”, does not appear in the New Testament!

Nowhere does the scripture say only a man’s spirit is reborn. This is a foreign idea that is being forced to fit where it does not fit. Pagan concepts are trying to wear biblical clothing. Christians are teaching it, and many are listening to it, never questioning. It’s called spiritualism in some parts of this word.

What scripture does say is that we are begotten from above.

How does that happen? 1Corinthians 15:44b-45Thereis a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening (life-giving) spirit.

This passage does not mean that only the spirit is begotten. If that were true, then Jesus would have been a spirit, according to this verse, and would not have had a human body. See where this “man is a spirit but has a soul and lives in a body” thinking takes you?

Some are telling us that only our spirits are now perfect and are “seated” with Christ – but the scripture does not say that. Stop dividing up who we are!

The scripture ways we are saved. We. Not just the spirit. We. We are regenerated from above. We renew our minds. We put on off the old man and put on the new. We are filled with the Holy Spirit. We have received the spirit of adoption.

We will sleep and be the dead in Christ that rise first, unless we are alive when He comes. We will be raised with incorruptible bodies. In an instant, we will be changed. It’s a mystery. Maybe it can’t be explained or understood. Maybe we are to just believe it.

We are now spiritual, rather than natural, because we have the spirit of Christ.

We now understand spiritual things, which the natural man cannot understand. We are alive to the things of the spirit.

Nowhere does the scripture say a person’s spirit was dead, and gets reborn at salvation.

It’s rather that a person’s understanding is enlightened. (Eph 1:18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

To all who teach the tri-part man doctrine, and to all who have heard it and believed it, go back and start over. You will have lost nothing by looking at this, and have much to gain from a better understanding.

Many high profile teachers have changed their minds about things, after having preached and taught them for years, and having written books. They have then changed their teaching, written new books, and made new videos. Let God be true.

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Man is a living soul. This is the basis of who and what man is. It starts in Genesis.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

1Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

The idea that the real man is a spirit is not Biblical.

Man is not described as even having a spirit in the beginning. It is pagan. It’s the Greek idea that the natural world is lower than the spiritual and that the two really aren’t connected.

In fact, the prevailing idea behind man being a spirit also generally implies that the physical or natural realm is less real than the spiritual or unseen realm. This is nothing but dualism in Christian disguise. (Dualism is classical thought that has crept into the western view of scripture. But both the old and new testaments are written with an eastern/Judeo viewpoint. They saw the natural and spiritual as a whole, not separated.)

From far too many evangelical pulpits we hear that man is a spirit, has a soul, and lives in a body. In many parts of the world, that is called spiritualism. Voodoo. The basis of ghoulish tales.

If man is a spirit, where does the spirit come from? Some religions believe in a spirit body that lives in a natural body and even looks like that body – or the reverse – the body looks like the spirit. Spirit is described with words that mean air and breath, because it can’t be seen.

I propose that man has a spirit and is a living soul – quite the opposite of the popular notion being preached!

Heaven forbid. Some religions say our spirits pre-exist with God. And that they are rational, sentient beings which never die. Really? Never die? When Jesus only has immortality? That is not biblical.

1Timothy 5:14b…..until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: 15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; 16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

1 Timothy 1:16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. 17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

God is a spirit. By definition, He isn’t immortal because He never was mortal. He is eternal. John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. This may come as a surprise, since we usually hear that only God has immortality. But it is Jesus to whom this refers. And it is by belief in Jesus that we inherit eternal life.

Paul says this: Romans 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

So it is reasonable to conclude that eternal life is what provides immortality. First to Jesus, and then to us in the resurrection (for clearly our present bodies will see decay).

Please see that it is us who receive eternal life. It is us who will put on immortality. It is us who will have incorruptible bodies. No mention about our spirits. Peter says this: 1Peter 1:23 Being born again (having been regenerated – from the Greek) not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

But didn’t Paul say we are body, soul, and spirit? (Young’s Literal Translation)1Thessalonians 5:23 …and the God of the peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved unblameably in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ;

This passage does not imply separate parts, but merely is a way of describing the whole, and was a common way of expressing things in Paul’s day. Man is, as described elsewhere in scripture, a living soul. He isn’t a spirit that has a soul and lives in a body. That idea is not scriptural.

The words for soul and spirit are used almost interchangeably. That makes a good word search. Very interesting.

Hebrews 4:12 for the reckoning of God is living, and working, and sharp above every two-edged sword, and piercing unto the dividing asunder both of soul and spirit, of joints also and marrow, and a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart;(Young’s Literal Translation).

God knows the thoughts and intents of the heart.

That is hidden from us; we can’t know it. The distinction of soul and spirit is not clear in scripture. It takes God to know what is in the heart. This passage is not ground for saying the spirit is an entity. It is in no way even implied.

We need to stop listening to fables contrived by man. They lead us into some very strange and ungodly places.

Another passage that is usually referred to for saying man is a spirit is this: 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Some versions actually say “species” instead of creature. But that is not true to the sense or to the Greek!

Ktisis is the Greek word, and here is the meaning, from Thayer and Smith:

Ktisis – the act of founding, establishing, building etc

the act of creating, creation

creation i.e. thing created

of individual things, beings, a creature, a creation 1b

anything created 1b

after a rabbinical usage (by which a man converted from idolatry to Judaism was called) 1b

the sum or aggregate of things created

institution, ordinance

How someone concludes that this means man’s spirit is born again, but not the rest of him, is beyond me. We know that our bodies will be changed.

We are now converted and are a new “creation”.

Nothing like us has ever been known before. We are re-generated by incorruptible seed and heirs of eternal life. Once again, the fables of man have been placed over the scripture to try and make it support that which is not true.